World of Warcraft-V
by Rogue 2k8
Summary: When Kirito and Asuna are contacted by one of Agil's friend about a new VRMMORPG, and its strange and inconsistent changes, suspicions rise as to whether the creators are really who they are. Might a search for bugs and answers lead to another death game? Naturally, Kirito isn't the one to turn down the opportunity to toss another would be Virtual Tyrant.
1. The Initiation Station

**A test run of a WoW and SAO crossover, if I get at least 70% positive responses on it I'll continue it, otherwise I'll keep it to a oneshot since I have other things to write, but if you guys like it, than by all means I'll continue it... might even make a Elder Scolls and a "Tactic Online" version as well, (Tactic online would be the game where the next SAO takes place, more details on it later)**

**PS: I like writing in first person for these kinds of stories... so bear with me here.**

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**Kirito's POV**

A year since the ALO incident, **(I've yet to watch/read Gun Art)** Asuna, Klein, My sister/cousin and myself all took up a brand new VRMMO game, it was of American design, largely played on PC in the States, Canada and Europe, we'd only take the game up on request from a friend of Agil's who lived somewhere in North America... apparently the Post-Beta of the game was to be given out to a select few, this guy in North America had managed to get his hands on several copies of the game, it was called World of Warcraft: Virtual. Asuna despite the fact she had said she wasn't much of a gamer originally had agreed to come on for my own sake, for the sake of wanting to always be by my side. This game, since we had to connect to American servers all the way across the globe, required a very powerful internet connection for us to play efficiently. To this respect we all partied up at Agil's who might I just mention had a wicked powerful router and setup, his connection speed was enough so that several people could play without lag. Now then... you are probably wondering... why did we really take up this game?

Well the truth is, this guy in North America, he'd beta tested the game, much like I'd beta tested SAO, and during his gameplay he'd sensed something... off... about the game... in his email to Agil he'd said that quote: "_I've heard of the SAO incident, I've heard of the one called Kirito... and... for what it's worth, I think similar things are going on here in WOW-V, the game has changed to much, skill aren't the same, there are new enemies, things that shouldn't exist in the warcraft universe... I don't know what's going on, but I think someone other than Blizzard is developing the game... like they were bought out or sold the rights to make a VR game out of WoW... either way, I know you know the player Kirito personally and I was hoping you'd be able to get him and some friends to help me investigate. I know it's only a hunch but... well... better safe than sorry... I managed to get a few extra copies since I was in the beta, there were only 8000 copies of the game out at first as a test run of the game, will be only 8000 for the first few months while the Devs get more servers up and running in order to hold more players... but I want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, before that happens... take the copies and good luck. Signed Battlemaster01. PS: get them to add that as my battle tag as soon as they log in."_

And that was what we did... we all logged onto WOW-V at Agil's place upstairs above his bar while he kept analysis on us, being a bit of a techy and all.

The newest firmware update on the Nervegear and VR systems were able to make all users on the same LAN visible from your startup menu before you linked to a game. The new HUD showed all games you had downloaded to play either single player or multiplayer as well as anyone connected to the same network in a list on the bottom left corner of a blank white screen. It was amazing, the new update that was... never before had there been a central hub for the VR consoles... sort of like the Wii Home or Xbox Hub or PS Hub... the menu to control all your entertainment needs be it either social media, audio-visual, gaming or a marketplace... it was a total entertainment package now! In the center of your view was a small crosshair which acted like a cursor... it went wherever you looked and if you centered your view on a button or object for three seconds it would be selected, and the next menu would open, or a game would launch or a song would play... stuff like that...

Then I saw a new tab on the VR hub... WOW-V... I selected it and was launched into a new world... it was black for a while... it asked me what language I wanted to play in, and naturally I chose Japanese. Not that you guys are going to understand, so I'll be sure to translate it as I like to think my English had gotten pretty well over the course of SAO, ALO and GGO (Gun gale online?).

I opened up my friends list which was blank and added all my friends on the Local network to it. Asuna, who used her normal name by default... as always... Klein, who also used his real name... I think... and then "Leafa" or my sister... myself used my normal standard: Kirito. I was able to add them all to my party using Real ID before even entering the game. Once we are all in and selected our language and calibrated everything we were taken to the character select... I looked over all the races and classes... confused... I wasn't exactly sure how this American MMORPG worked... then I remembered Battlemaster and sent him a request over Real ID... I waited... then a blue notification message blinked with a green dot in it's corner "Battlemaster01 has come online" and I invited him to my party... by now, the character selection screen was simply a field with all the races standing around us in a circle, with class tabs floating above their heads, some were blanked out... the field was all green with rock and dirt breaking through the grass here and there.

*plink!* and a new player materialized in our room, he was pretty standard, for a Westerner... brown hair, rounded eyes and white skin summed him up enough... though I doubted he'd look like this in game... he wore a simple grey top with blue jeans, his arms crossed.

"Hey, so you must be Kirito?" he asked

I nodded "Yeah, nice to meet you Battlemaster."

Battlemaster chuckled "Just call me Brad when I'm not in character." He replied

"Alright... Brad..." I replied "So this is the first time I've played an American style VRMMORPG game... how does this work?" I asked

Brad cleared his throat and got our attention "Well first off, I'll be clear, this is MUCH different from the PC version of World of Warcraft, in this version, there is reduced restriction on what a class can learn, for example: In the PC version, the Mage was locked to using Cloth Armor and Staves or Wands as weapons, Daggers and 1H swords as well... however now Mages can learn secondary skill along with their primary to make them more versatile, however their secondary skills won't be as powerful as anyone with a primary class set... such as someone who is a Hunter will be better than a Warrior who is using his Hunter Class tree as a secondary."

"Ok, but where should we start?" asked Asuna

"Well, first off, all of you pick the race you think you want to play as. The game is up to the Burning Crusade in expansion packs so the max level is 70 and there are a total of ten races to choose from. Be careful though... each race is allied with a faction... The Horde, Reds... and The Alliance, Blues... the VR version of WoW is less... Player versus Player influenced and as result Horde and Alliance players can party and quest together, but still there is a permanent PvP flag for all players. An Alliance player can attack a Horde Player without warning or vise-versa and NPCs of a faction will ALWAYS attack players on the opposing faction unless you are in a sanctuary or neutral town."

"I think I will stick with what I know" I said and stepped up to the model of a Human.

"That's fine" said Brad "You can have up to three characters at the moment so you can come back and play a different race and class combo if you want later. I've got all three of my characters already made and leveled a bit, I'll meet you at whatever starting place you pick."

"What can a human warrior do?" I asked

"Human warriors are good at melee combat and can wear Mail armor at first, then upon reaching level 40 they can wear plate armor which is the best protection you can get. They fight using either large two handed weapons, dual wield or a sword and shield depending on your Specs. Most of their abilities are physical attributed and Warriors may not use Staves or Wands or roll Priest, Druid, Shaman, or Paladin as their secondary Class. Which by the way you don't unlock until level 10, which is also when you chose your first spec"

I nodded and stepped into the human avatar, my view distorted and I envisioned what I wanted to look like... when I stepped out of the avatar I was a new man, literally... I was taller and more muscular, with a suit of mail under a yellow shirt and pants with leather boots. A large worn Claymore rested on my back.

"How do I look?" I asked and looked at Asuna, who seemed to be suppressing a giggle...

"Like a much more... ripped version of yourself..." she replied

"Klein? What will you role?" I asked

"I think I'll also go with Human... but I was a melee fighter last time... so I think I'll pick a ranger fighter this time." He stepped into the avatar which changed him into a more ripped version of himself. He wore a set of worn brown leather armor with a large worn crossbow on his back and a huge grey wolf spawning next to him.

"Hunter" said Brad "Nice pick... I played a hunter during the beta, the new versions can use both melee and ranged weapons effectively, but Hunters don't have many melee abilities by default, you can change that with your secondary class set. Hunters can only roll Rogue, Druid, Mage and Warrior as their second class set. They excel at ranged combat with special shots, traps and animal companionship..."

Asuna then looked over myself and Klein "Um..." she paled "if we chose human, would we turn ripped?"

"No, just get taller probably... but if you don't want to roll Human, there are also Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves and Draenai you can play as... if you want to play as Alliance... I'm more of a Horde player myself but I still have a Human Paladin-Mage at level 20 in Goldshire... I don't play Alliance that much... but otherwise I still have a Level 60 Undead Hunter-Mage from back when I was in the Beta and a Level 31 Blood Elf Rogue-Druid... yes... Blood Elves can be druids now... I can turn into a Springpaw! It's awesome! Belfs only have VERY limited druid powers and can only have them as secondary classes..."

"What Horde races are there?" Asuna asked.

"Well there are the Orcs, no need pointing them out. Trolls, the once with tusks and bi-pedal feet, blue-skinned and rather... smelly... then there are Tauren, big bull men or women who oddly enough resemble aboriginal cultures in their own culture... and the Undead... easy enough to describe... decaying features, grey skin... blah, blah, blah... though there was an update recently which if you get a certain item for a quest you could transform into a dark elf like Sylvanas who is the undead racial leader... which I happened to get... its so cool... then lastly there are the Blood Elves who in my opinion are downright hot... I mean look at those models... just look at them. Long ears, green glowing eyes, very thin features, what's not to love... stereotypical elf looks I guess..." Brad turned to the girls again "But just for today I DO recommend you all roll humans for now, since I can teach you the ropes... I've played much of this game for the PC so I know my way around the world and most of its quests... I also know the proper stats one should acquire and what not for a specific class... not all things changed from PC to VR... thank the Light..." he chuckled at that last part...

Asuna stepped into the Human avatar and emerged slightly taller, not quite as tall as me thankfully... she wore skin tight black leather armor, which in my opinion didn't match her style... she had two daggers hanging from her side and a bandolier of vials around her torso.

"Rogue..." sighed Brad "I hate Rogues... only if they are on the enemy team that is... they are masters of stealth and deal high damage per second with their lightning fast dual wielding attacks, can only wear leather armor or cloth if they want... dunno why though... anyways, swords, daggers, axes, maces are all your tools of death, add some poison at later levels when you learn some alchemy. Rogues can roll Druid, Hunter, Mage, Warlock or Shaman as their secondary class."

"My turn!" cheered My sister **(her name escapes me for the time being)** and she hurried to change into her class. Upon leaving she was wearing flowing and loosely fitting white and blue robes, wielding a knobbed oak staff in one hand...

"Priest, good choise, your party is now set with someone to fill all the roles. DPS, Tank and Healer. Priests are the best healers by chunk, meaning their heals will heal the most per cast, instantly... some debate that druids are better, to which I agree, but only on HoTs or Heals over Time. Priests heal the most chunk health and can roll Mage, Warlock, Rogue or Hunter as their secondary class. Now then, log in and I will meet you guys at the Abbey near your start location, I just gotta log into my human in Goldshire and I'll be up there shortly... wait up for me."

And with that we all headed into a new world filled with all sorts of new creatures...

After the bright light died down, I found myself standing in front of a large church with a man standing just outside of it, a name tag floated over him with the green name tag saying: Marshal Mcbride **(I'm horrible with NPC names by the way) **a golden exclamation mark was over his head... he waved at me... no not just me... my group... he was waving at Asuna, myself, Klein and Leafa, as she has selected her name to be...

"Hey rookies, c'mere, I have some work for you" said the NPC and we all walked up to him. "You guys look pretty green... but we need all the help we can get, I heard King Wyrnn was sending down promising new recruits to help with the Blackrock Orc problem we've been having... as you can see, they've got trained battle worgs running amuck in our own homes... I want you all to head out there and thin the pack, kill eight Blackrock Battle Worgs for me and then return for a nice reward and more work."

The NPC then held out his hand, as if wanting us to shake it... two text boxes appeared before his hand. "Accept" and "Decline". I figured he wanted me to shake his hand to accept the quest... which seeing nothing else to do, I reached out and shook his hand "Sure, we'll do it" I said and simultaneously a loud sound of a page flipping sounded off, probably only we could hear it since the few other new players didn't notice it...

"Hey guys!" yelled a familiar voice and we all turned around to see a long brown haired and scruffy but short bearded Human Paladin in blue patterned mail armor with a golden and blue tabard over his torso with the image of a lion printed on it. a shiny red and silver Two-hander was sheathed on his back.

"It's me, brad" he said when he reached us "or as my Character name suggests, Bradley Lightsword."

"What's with the name and look?" I asked, being a bit rude.

"Oh the model is one of the older models used for humans when they didn't have the self identity mechanism, as for the last name, you can create one once you level up based on your skill set and reputation. Lightsword is from me often pulling Healing and Tanking roles in dungeons or quest groups..."

"Alright, so we just got our first quest... how does the fighting system work here?"

"Well... first off... gimme a sec..." he held out his sword and is dematerialized into pixels which were all absorbed into a small brown satchel on his hip belt before another smaller one handed sword which was far less elaborate than his two-hander took its place. "Weaker weapon, so I don't kill the enemies around here too fast."

He lead us into the forest, not to far from the church but far enough to find a good killing field. Lurking around the trees and bushes would could all make out the shapes of black dog creatures with shaggy fur and rabid foaming mouths... they were about the size of a small dog, but they certainly looked vicious.

"These guys are level one... for starters, I'll show you how to select a target, the system in WOW-V will track a target and show it's health and resource levels such as Mana, Stamina, Focus or Rage. Select a target by looking and nodding at it... staring at it for three seconds works as if you want to be more discrete... try it now... once you've gotten it selected I can tell by looking at all of your Target-of-Target tracker. Now then, once you have it targeted you can get all the info on your target. In WoW PC, targeting was required to attack an enemy, it isn't anymore though to its just for info on said target... now then lets move onto attacking."

Brad walked up to one of the Battle Worgs which plainly ignored him... I guess Bran noticed my confused look as he just answered "The mobs in the starting area are all yellow which means they will only attack if you attack first." He kicked the Worg in the hindquarters and it growled before turning on Brad, it's name text gaining a glowing red aura indicating it was now aggressive towards a player. The Worg lunged at Brad, who in turn side stepped easily before kicking the Worg away from him.

"My level is so high compared to this Worg that his movements seem so slow to me, as you level up you will become harder to hit due to an enemies Expertise stat, which provides an extra dodge stat to your target if they are a higher level... meaning a level 10 would have a hard time hitting me due to a lower Expertise stat, or something like that I think... makes lower levels seem to move slower than they really are making their attacks easy to avoid... they still do damage if they hit though depending on your armor... for example if it's too high they won't even damage you. As for skills and abilities and spells..."

He dodged another lunge from the Worg before reeling back his arm and letting forth a bright and holy sword strike, cutting off the Worg's head... "That was Crusader Strike, the default Paladin attack ability, Warriors and other melee classes use their attacks like that as well... just focus your attack on the enemy and reel back a bit then go in for a large attack... the skill will activate and extra power will be added to your strike. Try now Kirito, use your Slam ability on one of these Battle Worgs... for you however you might have a small fight on your hands since you are the same level as them."

"Alright..." I drew my Claymore and focused an attack on a lone Worg... I struck, dealing normal damage... I was shocked "W-why didn't it work!?" I asked now fighting off a rather pissed off Battle Worg...

"Oh right! Warriors require Rage to use their abilities... meaning you need to take and deal damage to generate Rage, once you have enough, Warrior abilities are easy to use since you just need to put a bit of anger into your attack to activate the skill! Keep an eye on your red Rage bar near your health and when it reads 20 you can use a Slam ability!"

I blocked an attack from the Worg, its claws raked my leg, lowering my health by a fraction, I kicked it off me and struck again, taking its health down to half... it attacked again, knocking me down... I kicked it back off me... I felt mad that it had been able to do that... I filled my net strike will all that anger and smashed straight down onto the Worg's skull with a downwards slam. With a loud yelp and whine the Worg fell dead at my feet and a small yellow text box appeared saying "Blackrock Battle Worgs Slain: 1/8"

"Good job Kirito, don't worry about your health, until level ten health regenerates nearly instantaneously after battles. So as long as you don't get in over your heads you'll be fine."

"That wasn't that bad, I've had worse in SAO... not used to being such a weak player however..."

"Don't be hard on yourself, the game has been out only for two weeks and no one has even reached level 40 yet... only the former beta testers like myself have passed that level. The main reason is that this version of WoW is much more physically demanding... and people need more rest than when they played it on PC." He turned to Asuna "Asuna, the Rogue starting at level three of this version can use stealth which will make you invisible to all mobs and players five levels bellow you unless you make contact with them... characters five levels and higher will be able to see you faintly and characters of the same level or four higher or lower will be able to see you if you get to close. Use your sinister strike on a Battle Worg, you can activate the ability just by stabbing the enemy in the back, in the gut, under the arm or any... unsportsman like area...

Asuna found a Worg and slashed at it to initiate combat. The Worg lunged at her but she countered by thrusting a dagger into its maw dealing a critical strike, taking its health down by three quarters... she followed up with a slash across it's body and a sinister backstab as she rolled over the beast, setting down behind it as it fell dead...

"Rogues have higher than average critical rates..." said Brad "By the way, don't forget to grab your loot... it's not much now, but you can sell it at least and start making some money... to loot just kneel down next to your enemy and put your hand on the corpse. A menu will open up showing you what you can take."

I knelt down to the Worg I'd slain and a small menu opened above the corpse... two items were in it reading [Shed Fur] and [Battered Wooden Shield] so I took them.

"Oh cool you got a shield" said Brad "I can tell since your in my party, the items you gain are shown above your head along with any share of money you find on the body. That shield you got is grey meaning it's a junk quality item, however it would be better than your current stuff... if you want to go one hander that is..."

"I'm not much of a shields person, I think I'll take up dual wield or stick with my Two-hander" I replied

"Well, selling it to an NPC vendor is always a good idea then. Make some quick cash. Oh speaking of which!" Brad opened up his player menu and tapped one of the buttons on the drop down menu and we all got smaller menus forcibly opened up on us. On the top left corner is showed Brad's player character and name along with a 1 next to a golden coin.

"Press accept" he said and we all did.

"what was that?" Klein asked

"I just gave you all one gold coin, it should get you started."

"Thaaanks..." sighed Klein

"What? One gold is a fair amount for your levels and status as rookies... you can at least buy some new gear at an NPC vendor, the currency system in Azeroth works like 100 copper equals 1 silver and 100 silver equals 1 gold... and you can have as much gold in your wallet as you want! So technically I just gave you all 100 silver... or 100,000 copper..."

"What about spells?" asked Sugu

"Well, for spells it varies... for example..." Brad opened up his menu again, and tapped a button we couldn't see... a notification appeared before me: Bradley Lightsword has challenged you to a Lethal duel, accept?

"Wait why lethal?" I asked

"Don't worry, I've died here before during the beta... well... once... twice... but if you die I can resurrect you, it's just for an example." He explained

I shrugged and sighed "Fine" I pressed accept, full well knowing I was going to get my ass handed to me since he was a whole 19 levels higher than me.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Fight! Came a notification box as Brad's character name turned from Blue to Red.

I charged at him, slashing downwards at him to which he, as I assumed, would easily dodge since my Expertise was so low. He kicked me down, planting a foot on my chest.

"Sloppy..." he said before letting me get back up. I pushed away from him, trying to keep my distance, looking for an opening...

He reached his hand out towards me which began to glow with a golden aura before a bolt of holy energy flew out and zapped me, burning my skin with a sort of electrical and burning sensation before I fell to the ground unconscious... a message box appeared before my eyes as I saw my corpse: You are Dead, 10 minutes until forced spirit ejection, release spirit?

"Ok, Kirito, the duel is over and you should still be able to hear me if you haven't ejected your spirit... oh that reminds me, everyone hug Kirito's corpse..."

"Wait what?" everyone asked

"It's an achievement: Make Love not Warcraft! Hug a dead player before they release their spirit."

Everyone rolled their eyes...

"Fine if you don't want it... anyways... the spell I just used was Holy Shock which is an instant cast and can be used simply by focusing your resource such as mana into an element, for me it was holy, then once you have an element charged you can unleash it into a basic attack spell, all you need to do is think of the spell and element in order to cast... much more simplified than in real life I would assume if there really was magic... but there are also Cast time spells, and Channeling spells. Each one is cast differently... such as a resurrect... I'll use redemption on you now."

Brad knelt over my body and put his hands on it "Spirit of the deceased, your time is not up, come forth from the ethereal realm and redeem yourself on the field of battle once more."

Another text box appeared before me: Bradley Lightsword wishes to resurrect you, accept?

I hit accept and I felt my mind reattach to my in game body... I sat up, my health regenerating quickly.

"Cast Time spells are cast just like instant casts, only you need to hold the element and spell in focus for a specific amount of time before it is released."

Sugu a nodded and found herself a Worg to cast her basic attack spell Smite on. She managed to cast the spell twice before it got to close and she just whacked it over the head with her Staff killing it... she knelt down and grabbed her loot getting [Shed Fur] and a [Patched Cloak] which was a grey class item, or junk item.

She viewed her equipment in her character menu... "I don't have a cloak at all equipped..." she said before opening her inventory and equipping the Grey and dirtied cloak with a rating of 13 Armor.

"If you find any Bracers, Cloaks, Headgear or Bags be sure to equip them since you don't have any yet... well in terms of bags you don't have any besides your backpack."

"Hey, Brad" said Klein "Before we start with the real questing and end the tutorial, I was wondering... how is it you speak perfect Japanese?"

Brad cocked his head... "You guys selected Japanese for your default language right? If so then I'm not speaking Japanese, I'm speaking English... same with you... kinda... it works like I speak my default language, then it will translate it into whatever language I have selected in game, which is Common, the Alliance faction language, all Alliance races can understand it... and then if you can understand Common it will translate into the language you selected as default during your setup... normally Horde and Alliance can't speak to each other, but now you can learn the other racial languages if you have time on your hands... you'll have to do the translation yourself however... they have books somewhere in Capital cities which allow you to learn other languages."

"Speaking of learning" said Klein "What jobs and professions are there? Like Blacksmithing."

"In terms of profs... there are so many to choose from now, there used to be only the basics like Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Skinning, Mining, Alchemy, Herbalism, Cooking, First-aid, Fishing, Archeology which they will add when Cataclysm comes out for this, Enchanting, Tailoring and I think also with Cataclysm there will be Engineering... I think that's all... but now there are even more than that! Not all are practical but more for fun... since there are so many profs to choose from now, you aren't limited to two profs... you can now have up to I think five plus your secondary or basic professions which are cooking, fishing, first-aid and Archeology. I myself am a High end Journeyman Blacksmith and Miner with an Adept Fishing skill, high apprentice cooking and first-aid... haven't taken any others but I was thinking alchemy or enchantment so I can buff my gear more."

"Dang... this game is actually pretty cool I guess..." I said "Anyways, shall we get to the slaughter of Worgs?"

Brad chuckled "Of course... by all means have at them... I'll meet you at Goldshire when you are done the starting questline, don't worry, it's hard to miss..." he started walking away before he swiveled around "Oh yeah! There is a Rare Kobold Spawn called um... something Waxfinger or something... you will know it's him when you select him and there is a silver dragon around his info panel. Those monsters drop better than average loot and I'm pretty sure you get a free bag 100% of the time when you kill him along with a few silver depending on group size... kill him and he'll probably bring you up half a level... careful though... he's level five! Meet you at Goldshire!"

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We wandered through the woods, killing every Worg we encountered... in total we'd have to kill 32 Worgs in order for us all to finish the quest... after killing about 20 of the pups we all simultaneously flashed a golden light with a loud sound resembling a gong or church bell... either way it sounded metallic...

_Welcome to Level 2 _a message flashed across my view as my health increased by roughly twenty points and I started to feel a bit stronger.

"Alright!" Klein cheered "Shame no abilities have been unlocked yet, my next skill gets unlocked at level 3..."

"Same" I said "I guess same with all of us?"

Asuna and Sugu nodded.

"Well then, off to kill more Worgs..."

And so eighteen more Worgs later we finished the quest requirements... now we just had to find our way back to the Abbey... the woods were thick and we'd wandered in quite far... I don't know if the game was supposed to be this way but it seemed like things were bigger than they were supposed to be... going off a hunch I assumed that the PC version of the game was smaller than the VR version, meaning that the distance to cover and stuff was greater than the PC version.

After five minutes of walking we returned to the Abbey where Marshal Mcbride was standing, seeming to not have moved an inch since we left upon logging in. A golden question mark was floating above his head, indicating we could hand the quest in now.

"Heros!" he called "I see you've done quite a number on those wretched hounds... here's your pay, and take this piece of armor to keep yourself safe, as I have more dangerous work for you, if you are up to it."

He held out his hand and dropped 1 silver and 20 copper coins into my hand as well as giving us each a new piece of equipment, boots matching our class's armor type. I got mail boots while Asuna and Klein both got leather and Sugu got cloth shoes. Despite the game's repetitiveness I was starting to enjoy it...

"Now then" said Mcbride "Those Orc might be tough, but they are stupid... real stupid... they think we can't see them, but if you look over yonder you'll see the silhouettes of those pesky Blackrock Orc Scouts... the once that look like they are sneaking, holding telescopes. Well they aren't sneaky and frankly I think it's time for them to be relieved of duty, the painful way. Take out six Scouts and report back here for compensation." Mcbride crossed his arms and the same accept or decline box appeared before me... I nodded "Consider those Orcs as good as gone." I said

"good, that's what I like to hear! Go get 'em heros!"

As soon as he finished saying that, another exclamation point appeared above his head...

"Forget something?" I asked

"Oh I just remembered, Brother Paxton and Sergeant Edward **(Like I said, I suck with NPC names so I make them up sometimes)** are making a stand on the western side of the Abbey, if you are over there mind lending them a hand? Just tell them Mcbride sent you."

"Sure thing" I said

The marshal saluted us by putting his arm over his chest "Go with honor friend"

We all drew our weapons and got ready for some serious blackrock and roll...

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**Alright so that was the first, and depending on the responses I get, last chapter of the WoW-V series... as I said I'm just testing it and getting it out of my system... but now that I've started I actually like it... so please leave me a review saying what you did or didn't like or if you even want me to continue or not. If you really liked the story thus far why not go ahead and add this fic to your Faves and follow it to stay in the know about future updates?**

**This has been Rogue2k8 and I'm signing out... for now...**

**WTYL Fan-bros - Rogue.**

**(WTYL = Write to you later)**


	2. Blackrock and Roll Goldshire!

**Ok I've gotten a few good responses for WoW-V so far, now its time to wrap up the Human Starting Questline and get to Goldshire!**

**Music tracks recommended for this chapter (Elwynn forest theme, Lion's pride theme)**

**Also forgive the rather vague and stale first half since the human starting quests weren't meant to be the highlight of this chapter, Goldshire and the Tavern were, it gets more interesting and in depth there.**

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"Kirito! Duck!" yelled Klein and I dropped to my knees as a heavy crossbow bolt flew over my head and impaled itself into Gug Fatcandle, the Rare Spawn that Bradley had told us about. **(I remembered his name! :D)** just after the arrow had impacted Klein's large grey Wolf leapt over me and tackled the kobold taskmaster to the floor, trying to rip it's throat out. Unfortunately the rare unleashed a fireblast while he was down, throwing the Wolf off of him, hitting the ground with a loud yelp.

"Damnit, C'mon boy get up!" said Klein and the wolf jumped back up, limping a little bit. "Alright, you stay back ok?" the wolf wagged its tail and sat down.

I rolled to the side as a fireball hit where I'd just been then reeled back, putting pressure onto one of my legs before letting it go and charging with lightning speed at Gug, stunning him upon hit before following up with a Slam over his head.

Gug fell dead...

"Yeah!" I cheered as me and Klein leveled up again.

"Shame the girls weren't with us." Said Klein

"yeah, where did they go again?"

"Remember they went to go search for injured Stormwind Soldiers in the woods while we were supposed to be searching for Goblin Assassins to kill."

"Right... and we just got lucky enough to stumble upon Gug here..." I added "You want the bag? Its only a four slot one."

"Nah, you keep it" said Klein and I took the loot.

"We should head back, we only need two more kills, I bet the girls are waiting for us."

I nodded and we turned around, heading back to the Northshire Abbey, encountering several Assassins on the way back. After a few minutes of walking we found the small camp just outside the abbey where Sergeant Edward and Brother Paxton were, for our phase the amount of Worgs that were attacking them had died down and there was nearly no fighting on the edges of the camp. Sure enough however... the girls were already waiting for us... once they spotted us their faces took on looks of bewilderment.

"H-how did you level up so quickly?!" asked Suga

"We found the rare spawn, we're actually about to level again!" I teased.

"Awwwww" she whined

I laughed which for some reason was deeper then how I normally laughed... probably more like how the Humans of Azeroth laughed... I don't know... anyways by now Klein and I were Level 4 while the girls were level 3 still.

"why don't we hand the quests in, I bet you will level once you do." I said trying to cheer her up.

"Fine" she replied

We handed our quests in, gaining more Exp, gear and money as a reward! And as a result my hunch was right as the girls both flashed a golden light upon reaching level 4.

"Hey hero's! Over here!" yelled Sergeant Edward, one of the quest giver NPCs, he had a exclamation point over his head, meaning he must have wanted to give us a quest, however some NPCs I'd noticed, such as Brother Paxton didn't beckon for you when they had a quest, so I assumed when an NPC beckons you for a quest it is more important than other ones, or a requirement.

"Yes Sergeant?" I asked as I walked over to him.

"Thanks for your help" said the Sergeant "But now I'd like you to head back and report to Marshal Mcbride if you don't mind, we're about to wrap up this situation here and I think he wants your help for the final push."

"Alright, we'll head back then." I replied and accepted his quest.

As we walked along the length of the Abbey I took some time to listen to the background music of Elwynn Forest, it was... beautiful, SAO hadn't had soundtracks like this at all... in fact SAO hadn't had any soundtracks what so ever!

Once we came around to the front of the Abbey and stepped up to the Marshal, he jumped right into his orders. "Alright, thanks for coming here so quickly. The time to strike back at these bastards is now! We will take the fight to the leader of their attack group across the river to the east, just behind the Abbey. There will be an old grape farm there which the Blackrocks have taken over, we must retake the farm! Eliminate several Orc warriors and their leader, once that is done, we shall be victorious and you will be well on your way to becoming hero's of the alliance!"

He saluted us with a "Light be with you".

**XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX**

* * *

"You think we're in over our heads?" I asked just before I got hit by a heavy two-handed Sword, cutting into my shoulder. "AH!" I yelled as my health dropped by 10% I retaliated and drove my blade up into the gullet of the Blackrock orc warrior who fell dead at my feet, I turned around to see Klein's wolf tackling another down while he alone engaged another in close combat with a dagger, Asuna was weaving in between three while shrugging off any hits due to Suga's new Flash of Light Ability which was a healing spell.

I heard a whisper of a blade cutting through air and side stepped a vertical swing from another Orc who had brought his buddies with him this time, adding another three pulls to our battle.

"Sugu! Just keep healing, we'll handle the pulls!"

A loud yelp came from Klein's Wolf. "No! Buddy!" I targeted Buddy whose health read zero.

"Klein you can revive him later! Just focus on the battle!"

"Um... right!" he stuttered as the enemy his wolf was fighting dumped all the aggro onto Klein himself, however since it's health was so low already Klein was able to finish it off quickly with a Raptor Strike. He rolled to the side of the next orc's attack before swinging his legs, knocking him to the ground before pulling his crossbow from his back and singlehandedly shooting a bolt into it's forehead at point-blank range.

Back to my orcs now. I blocked a swing from a Blackrock Orc's axe before kicking him in the knee, following up with a Slam which impacted between it's shoulder and neck, scoring a critical hit and killing it instantly. I knocked the body to the ground before dodging a thrust from the second orc but the third seemed to switch out with the second and slashed me across the chest before the second returned to stabbed me through the gut. My health dropped to a third but a dim aqua bar took place of all my lost health before a flash of light restored all my life energy.

It was then that one of the attacking Orcs lost its attention on me and went after Sugu who had just healed me.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled and leapt towards it bringing my sword down across it's back, the Orc roared and turned its aggression back against me.

"The grapes were very good!" it bellowed, which made me laugh a bit before I swiped my sword across it's knees and brought it down, stabbing my blade into the tripped orc's abdomen.

"Don't worry Ni-san, I've got it!" said Sugu and cast Word of Pain on the last Orc, causing damage over time, before casting Smite on it twice, killing it. Just as my last Orc fell, Asuna finished off her batch, five dead Orc surrounded her feet, most with slashes across their necks and chest, or stab holes through their throats.

"You guys take to long to finish them off." She teased

"Well I'm Tank, Sugu is healer and Klein lost his doggy." I countered

"Wolf..." sighed Klein "it was a wolf..." he sobbed "Buudddyyy!... oh well I'll just revive him" and his hands began to glow green before a birght light touched down on his Wolf's corpse, which got up fully resurrected.

"Alright!" I said "on to their leader, Something the Destroyer, hell I can't pronounce this name!" **(Actually I just looked everywhere and I couldn't find out what his name was, I am not making another human just to look his name up...)**

We walked to the north of the burning vineyards, about a ten minute walk in to the burning woods we found a large Orc standing next to a banner, an enormous War Axe in his hands, spiked spaulders graced his shoulders and a double leather bandoleer crisscrossed his chest.

This giant Orc spotted us, bellowing curses in Orcish that we were unable to understand. This Orc was going down...

I charged at him, stunning him on impact and following up with a Slam, the Orc then attacked with his Axe, hitting me with the flat side of it, sending me flying into a tree, causing me to lose a sixth of my health.

"I'll keep him busy, Sugu, heal Kirito!" said Asuna who drew her daggers and attacked the Orc using Sinister Strike three times, slicing up the Orc before having to let her Energy recharge. Klein sent his revived Wolf to attack, using the Bite ability on the Orc's legs, then performing a charged Arcane Shot on the Orc twice.

The Orc by now had cuts all over, bite marks on his legs and waist with multiple arrows sticking out of him. Sugu finished casting Flash of Light on me, refilling my health allowing me to return to the fight, but since I was still classified as _in combat_ I couldn't use my Charge Ability, so I had to run up to the Orc my self and attack with a Slam, then having to revert to my default attacks.

I targeted him and his health read 30% "Asuna! Use Eviscerate on him now!"

"Right!" Asuna then reeled back and leapt at the Orc, vaulting over him, slashing him across the chest, neck and back, carving him up. Her blades cut through the Orc's flesh with an elegant grace and she landed on the other side of the Orc without so much as a sound.

We all jumped back as the Orc dropped to his knees. "The grapes... were so tasty...uhhhh" and he fell dead

We all cheered and took the loot of about one silver for each of us along with some [Linen Cloth]x2 for Sugu.

As we headed back over the course of about a twenty minute walk I thought about asking if the distance between locations was accurate to the PC version, since it seemed like no one would want to play if it took them a third of an hour just to turn in a damned quest.

We got back and Mcbride congratulated us, giving us each 2 silver and another piece of armor. By now we were all suited up in a new set of gear with higher armor ratings than our starting equipment. I wore a heavy navy blue suit of chainmail with leather coated mail gloves with matching chain pants, a non worn Claymore now graced my back with new cuffed chainmail boots and a iron buckled chainmail belt.

Sugu had a new green and black robe with warm black cloth shoes and gloves. A simple white belt rounded her waistline and she had a long metal staff on her back.

Asuna and Klein both had navy blue leather suits of armor with brown leather belts and black leather boots and cuffed gloves. Klein had a new Crossbow with less cracks in it while Asuna had a sharp and shiny new Dagger and Sword.

We each also had a purple, bronze trimmed cloak down our backs with a slice up the middle to about halfway up.

So now... now was the time to finally leave the starting area! I was happy that we finally got to explore the World of Warcraft! Leaving the home for the first time so to speak.

"Alright heros, your job here is done, just head down to Goldshire and find Marshal Dughan, he will have more work for you if you are interested, also be sure to have a break in the Lion's Pride Tavern, you've earned it! Dismissed!" he saluted us as we took of.

We left Northshire via a walled pass with level 80 Elite Guards guarding the walls, there was also a civilian man there who upon us speaking to him, gave us a quest to bring a package of grapes and a letter to a man in the Lion's Pride Tavern. We accepted it and headed to goldshire.

It was a long walk to be sure, however it was peaceful, the trees here were larger than some buildings in Japan with leaves reaching at least ten stories high. We could see wolves, bears and other wildlife through the heavily spread out trees, however they didn't look like they would attack unless we got to close. The cobblestoned path way made slight taping noises as our feet moved along to road.

"Its a very quaint atmosphere you get here" said Asuna "Almost peaceful..."

I noticed a hungry look from a far off Grey Wolf pack "Yeah... peaceful..." I mused "Don't forget that nearly three quarters of the creatures in this world want to kill us... give or take two thirds maybe..."

"Yeah man but you gotta admit, real life sure doesn't have a soothing a soundtrack as this." Said Klein as he nudged me "Eh? Ehh?"

"Yeah, point taken." I chuckled as I rolled my eyes.

"Hold on guys." Said Sugu, we all looked back at my cousin who was holding an open map, staring down at it.

"Hey where did you get the map?" asked Asuna

"Apparently we all come with them, just spread your hands as if you were opening a scroll horizontally and a map should appear." She replied

I did as she instructed an sure enough a map of Elwynn forest appeared in my hands, however parts of the forest were blank and sheer parchment with nothing other than mountain ranges and water appearing.

"Guess if we want to whole forest to be detailed we need to explore the whole region!" said Klein who watched in amazement as the map drew itself as we headed deeper into the forest.

"Hey guys, look up from our maps!" exclaimed Sugu, causing us to drop our maps... and soon after our jaws as a sprawling village was lain out before us!

The buildings were all shingled with blue wooden roofing tiles, constructed out of grey stone with iron bar lanters hung upon their walls along with signs and potted flowers. Guard and Villager NPCs walked here and there with their pre-programmed tasks in progress. A large blacksmith took up the left side of the village while the town hall was just before that. A Human barracks was just outside the village with a multitude of soldiers outside training, the stables were just in the far center with several horses stowed away in the stalls eating hay, neighing as horses do. Then to the right of the village square was a cozy looking tavern with a sign above it reading "The Lion's Pride". Before heading into said Tavern we all handed in our quests to this Dughan fellow and getting two more in return.

We all walked into the tavern and were... well... astonished at what we saw... the place was packed! You could hardly see the floor! Groups of players of all shapes and sizes took up what tables there were. I noticed a short and stout bearded man with a mug in his hand dancing like an old 80's hip-man on top of a table, next to him was a purple skinned silver eyed girl with long ears that stretched behind her violet haired head. Aside from those two I also noticed a brown haired scruffy human paladin who looked familiar... the paladin looked up and noticed me.

"Kirito! Come, sing! Be merry!" said Bradley

"Aye sir!" cheered the happy dwarf on the table.

Then the soundtrack changed... from a soothing woodland tune to a more... happy go lucky middle aged jazzy tune, the lute, harp and fiddle all flared up creating a cheery tavernlike atmosphere.

* * *

**(Switch to goldshire music right now, if you are actually listening to music while reading...)**

* * *

I nervously walked towards they group consisting of a Dwarf clad in heavy mail armor similar to Brad's, a scantily clothed Elf-person in black cloth armor and two humans, Brad being one, while another had purple flowing robes with a stave on his back, a little midget with funky goggles and tiny purple and red robes with a small stick at his side, and a strange blue skinned horny headed girl with thick green leather armor with a crossbow on her back.

"Hey, Brad who are they!?" asked the Horned girl in a curiously cute voice.

"Oh Jessy, this is Kirito, Asuna, Klein and Sugu, they are the guys I wanted to meet from Japan." Replied Brad

"Ooooohhhh" mused the girl, Jessy. "I see!" she chirped

Brad chuckled "Hey Kirito, before you head back out, care to join us with a round or two? Marco is paying of course..."

"Hey wha' you puttin' the tab on me again 'rad!" asked the dancing black haired and bushy bearded dwarf.

"I don't know, why do you insist on speaking like that?"

"I tol' ya'! I can't help it!"

"His skill in the English language leaves something to be desired..." commented the midget.

"Oh right! I just remembered, Kirito you probably don't know who these all are! Well the Dwarf is Marco, as you already know, the midget over there is Jake, a gnome, this slut of a lass-"

"Hey!" countered the purple skinned girl.

"Well you chose night elf, and in my books they are sluts! Haha! Anyways this night elf is Lucy, one of my friends from school, the other human here is Alex, another of my friends, he's a mage... then we've got Jessy here of course, she went as a Draenei hunter."

The Draenei girl giggled when he said her name, I took a guess that in real life she was his girl friend or something.

"Now then 'ave some grog lad before ya waste away!" said Marco the Dwarf Paladin.

"Um..." I nervously picked up a [Flask of Stormwind Tawny] from the table, the tooltip reading it said it was a _weak _alcoholic beverage. **(I forget if it was weak or typical, I haven't had a good flask o' tawny in a long time xD) **"Hey does alcohol actually affect-"

-Bradley Lightsword seems to be getting drunk off [Flask of Stormwind Tawny]—

"Yeeeeeaappp... hic!" said Brad "Ish't amazing in't it!? it... it hic! Even affectsh how you per... pershive enemish and shpeak... hic!"

"Don't worry, one flask won't get you as messed up as he is right now" said Jake the Gnomeish Mage in an adorably high pitched voice that Asuna couldn't help but "daaaaaw" at. "Besides, he's only at the second stage, you can go further before you throw up! Haha!" and the gnome took a sip of his Flask.

The Dwarf Marco who was still dancing on the table held up a huge mug that was almost to big for his oversized hands. "a goo' ol' mug o' burbon is tha' way ta' go lad! I tells ya!"

I couldn't help but laugh at his expense as he fell off the table onto a passing Night Elf "Well howdy." He said, the night elf rolled her eyes and shoved him off before rejoining her guild.

I took a sip and the bitter taste of the drink hit me like reality. "Ugh! Nasty!" I said

"You get used to it overtime... I still prefer Dalaran Pinot Noir and Eversong Wine over Stormwind Tawny though..." said Jessy the Draenei Hunter with a hint of elegance in her tone, her black hair ruffled as she hiccupped from her drinks...

"Hey brad." Said Klein after he'd sat down and already had four empty flasks in front of him, the rest of us had hardly downed one...

**(Ok, seriously if you're not listening to Goldshire inn theme right now, go fucking do it while reading this part, its soooo awesome :D)**

"Brad!" yelled Klein.

"Hold on I got this..." said Jessy, who dug around in her bag and pulled out a small steaming cup of tea and waved it in front of his face... Brad sniffed the cup, taking it rather meekly from her before sipping it.

-Bradley Lightsword seems to be sobering up—

"Uh... thanks... what was that Klein?"

"How long have we been in game?" asked Klein

I looked outside the tavern window, it was night time and it was pouring rain outside... but still the happy music played in the background, it made me happy to be inside for sure!

"Uh..." Brad looked at his wrist and a holographic clock showed up... "it was 2pm when you logged in, it is now 9pm..."

"What!?" I exclaimed, no one in the Tavern taking notice... "How can we have been in game for seven hours!?"

"Huh?" Jessy cocked her head...

"Oh you guys are confused, or maybe I'm confused or maybe I'm just confusing... hmm..." he mused "We either way, no, in real life its only been about a third or quarter of that even, maybe even an hour or so, probably only between one to two hours. You see time here in Azeroth runs differently, our sense of time is altered so that it seems like we are in here longer than we really are. For example a day here is really only six hours in real time. The V-Gear which is what the virtual system for North America is, and your systems, alter our perception of time, letting us stay in here longer. So about four days is equal to a day in real time, in my opinion it makes for a much more immersive experience getting to stay logged in days at a time, longest I went on was maybe three days in game, I almost forgot to log out but then the real world me got fed up with waiting for me to feed it. haha!"

I looked around at the group at our table, each of them had bracketed names underneath their own name tags, for all of them it read "The Alliance Brotherhood"

"Whats with the names under your names?" I asked Brad

"That's our guild, Marco here runs our Alliance Guild, I run the Horde Guild called 'The Horde Brotherhood' rather than Alliance... see? If you want you could join! In this world it nice knowing you got people to watch your back, unlike allot of halfass guilds out there these days since there are allot of phonies now, a shame really... but unlike them the Brotherhood actually upholds guild honors which is being there when your mates really need you and such things like that!"

I thought about the last time I'd joined a guild... well... more like the first time... I didn't want a repeat... however this was a game now, and just a game! No one would die this time! I nodded "Sure, I'll join the brotherhood."

With my shockingly easy approval of joining, Asuna, Klein and Sugu were quick to follow in joining the Brotherhood.

"Great!" said Marco "You should know, we're all friends here in the Brotherhood, its a small guild by comparison, but we're strong! Do not underestimate us!"

I looked at the guild roster which said there were only roughly just less than a hundred members.

"We're nearing level 10 at which point we'll be able to get heirlooms!" said Alex the Human Mage

"We don't get heirlooms yet dude, not until WOLTK remember!" pointed out Lucy the Night Elf Druid

"are you all beta testers?" asked Sugu

"Except for Jessy yes, it was a real stroke of luck for even one person to be picked to beta test from our school of who signed up! I swear half the school signed up for the beta and us five were chosen out of only around 800 beta testers!" said Brad

"I can't stand it anymore!" exclaimed Alex who jumped up on the table and started dancing in random patterns no one could make out.

We all broke out laughing...

"Hey if you guys want to call it a day and meet me back here of elsewhere tomorrow that's fine by me, I have to log soon anyways."

"Sure, to be honest this game is based on much more social aspects than any of the other games I've played, there were never any areas for players just to hang out and chat really." I said

"Or get drinks these good!" added Klein causing us to all chuckled a bit more. "I'm freaking loving this game!"

"Me too!" said Sugu and Asuna

I had to agree with them, this was a good game filled with adventure and exploration, I couldn't wait to try out the other classes and races... next I was thinking...

A brutal Orc Warrior... let's go and see what this horde was all about...

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**And so the Horde shall be joined soon for those Horde players out there who wanted to see Kirito and the others in some Monstrous guises (more or less) while still kicking ass. More to come now that I've got some feedback. Next chapter... the real story begins though...**


	3. FOR THE HORDE!

**And so, may the game begin...**

**Note to Guest Reviewer (your name escapes me, but once I start on the subject you will know who you are.) As for the first review, when I said a character that can fill each role, I meant their whole party had someone to pull each roll, I didn't mean Priests could Tank, I meant that their party had enough people of the proper classes to pull each role, Warrior = Tank, Hunter and Rogue = DPS and Priest = Healer. The second review, yeah I looked it up and it was just called "Flash Heal" but they are kinda similar so I guess they are easy to confuse, me being the one who confused it, sorry I don't play Priest that much.**

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I entered the small and hay scented tavern within the Valley of Strength in Orgrimmar and sat down at one of the tables after grabbing a drink, Klein was across from me, already with four bottles in front of him. I nervously wiped the emulated sweat off my green brow.

"I don't think I've seen Troll drink quite that much!" I said to Klein's new Horde character, a red messy harried long tusked blue skinned bipedal Troll Hunter with a red and blue scaled Raptor as a pet. He himself was equipped with what looked like a basic leather hauberk and trousers which lacked any visual appeal.

"It's good man!" he exclaimed "oh sorry... mon..." he corrected. "Beside's I don't think I've ever seen a face that went with such the wrong body."

"What do you mean by that!?" I exclaimed.

"I'm just saying that I've never seen an Orc Warrior with such a large build but such a baby face." He teased, referring to my black haired buzz cut Orc, a large two-handed double bladed axe was on my back while I wore a basic yet not very covering chainmail armored harness and leggings.

I rolled my eyes "How long have you been here anyways?"

"A day, in game anyways." Replied Klein. "So two or more hours or so IRL"

I sighed "And you couldn't have waited for me?" I asked

"No, you just got here from the crossing am I right?" said Klein and I nodded.

"Right, anyways, I know where Asuna and Sugu are now, they sent me a message while you were still out and they want to meet us in a place called Tirisfal Glades. Brad said he'd meet us here and show us how to get there."

I nodded, this was roughly our first month playing in game, so roughly a week or less than in real life and Klein and I were both just entering our double digit levels for the first time; with him at 11 and myself just at 10.

While we waited we talked about what specs we were rolling.

"I chose Marksman hunter, I can one shot anything within my level range now with a good enough weapon!" exclaimed Klein. "I'm also going with Leatherworking and Skinning as my primary professions, might also take Alchemy and Herbalist later though. What about you?"

I shook my green head "No, I just got into town remember... well... town isn't quite accurate... more like enormous metropolis on a fantasy scale..." I looked outside through the open archway which led into the tavern, where people were all running back and forth as if on a mad quest to go shopping at the Auction House or searching for people for that next dungeon run.

"I might get blacksmithing and mining later, maybe also engineering once it comes out, first-aid and fishing were also some of the lesser profs I was thinking about."

Klein nodded "Some hobbies might not hurt I suppose." He said, kicking his bipedal feet up onto the table... which I kinda cringed at.

"That's nasty..." I commented "Dude at least keep your boots on!"

"Fine fine..." and he put on a pair of small but soft looking black leather boots fit for Trolls. The rest of his gear was also dark, either grey or black or brown with shoddy sewing jobs but otherwise looking comfortable at least. "Like my gear? I made it myself, the whole Embossed Leather Set of craftable leather armor."

"Looks kinda shoddy..." I replied.

Klein looked offended "Well duh! I'm only a low level Journeyman right now! There's only so much I can make at the moment! What about your stuff? Does it provide any stat boosts?"

Most of my gear was white grade, red and grey loose fitting chainmail from quest rewards, along with a plain iron Great Axe. All of these however were Common items and rated White. That being said, along with most of Klein's armor being Green, or Uncommon rated, as well as him being a higher level, his health was higher than mine, since I'd chosen an Arms Warrior who was a DPS oriented specialization class.

I then heard faint tapping behind me... I turned around and nearly fell out of my seat, while Klein fell over laughing at my expense as I gazed back into the glowing red eyes of a grey skinned, silver haired, foot long eared elf with a bow seemingly made out of bones on his back, clothed in pitch black light mail armor made of what looked like obsidian chains overlapping heavy darkened leather, with a green glowing zombie dog heeling at his side.

His hood was down so he was less intimidating, but that was the least of my worries... I targeted him and looked at his level, which appeared as a skull, his health read around 8,350 HP, about 7,400+ more than either Klein or I, while a orange focus bar took up his resource bar. I looked at his name tag and sighed out of relief, his name tag was colored Aqua rather than the default Blue, meaning he was on my friends list, and if he was on my friends list that meant he was probably Brad.

"Brad?" I asked

"No no no!" said _Brad _"It's Brakanus Deatharrow! Level 62 Undead-Unique Hunter-Mage" he grinned holding three arrows between his fingers, one on fire, another encased in ice while another glowed purple with arcane energy. "I'm also one of the first to Outland right now. This was my beta character which was carried over from it, along with all his gear." I then noticed other level 10s, 20s and even a single 30 were all whispering to each other about beta testers, sneaking peeks at Brad. "Come then, we're off to find Asuna and Sugu, they are both waiting in Brill right about now I think... come come!"

We both got off our hard seats and paid the man for our drinks before following Brad out into the streets of a bustling city. I looked up at the Aerial guards on their Wyvern mounts while we passed the Auction House, hoping one didn't drop a _stink bomb _on me. We were led up the great lift which had several other players on board, then whisked up to the high rise of Orgrimmar where Zeppelin Towers and the City flight master resided. We stepped off the lift and headed down a thin ramp, onto a wooden walkway with Skyway peons working nearby, heading towards a tower with purple banners adorned with white opera looking masks and webs in front of it.

At the top of the tower there were several lines of benches, some of which were seating players this very moment. I looked out across Orgrimmar from this point, the view was amazing, we were nearly at the same height as the Windrider guards who patrolled Orgrimmar on their Wyverns.

*Praaaaaaaaaahhhhh*

Sounded a loud horn as the Zeppelin pulled into the docks, letting passengers off before letting us on.

We boarded the Zeppelin and Brad led us down into the flying machine where the internal passenger seating was, it was only a few rows of benches enough to seat maybe around 30 players, a maximum of fifty players could be taken across the sea on one Zep at a time however if some stayed up on the top deck or went out onto a small deck on the lower level.

We all took our seats, Brad got up and walked into one of the corners however, towards a strange metal locker that had steam coming out of it with a few gears on the outside which were turning furiously. I saw him insert a few silver coins and the machine dished out several small boxes which Brad brought back to us.

He sat down and gave me and Klein each a box and a small purple bottle.

"What is this?" I asked as I noticed the box was soft and moist.

"Unwrap it." stated Brad as he started to unwrap his box... I followed in kind revealing a few slices of [Warm Banana Bread]. The tool tip said it restored about 600-800 health over 23 seconds.

"What's with the bread and [Melon Juice]?" asked Klein referring to the purple bottles which restored 810 Mana over 21 seconds, despite us not using mana.

"What do you think it is? It's food and drink, not only does it restore your health and mana but it will also fulfill your life needs which are nutrition, hydration, rest and... other bodily functions... it's like they put the game into hardcore mode where you need to take care of your character. It also makes you feel less hungry which is cool, though you will need to eat in real life still."

"So just like in SAO I guess!" I said and Klein nodded noticing the similarities and taking a bite of the banana bread.

"How long of a trip is it to Undercity... mon...?" asked Klein

"By Zep about 6 in game hours, boat is even longer at 12 hours, it should be even longer though but they sped it up from 3 days, which was how long it was back in the beta... meaning in order to cross the ocean you'd pretty much have to log out for the day unless you really wanted to waste your whole day on the Zep..."

"Six hours!?" exclaimed Klein

Brad nodded "You'd best get comfy, we've got a long wait ahead of us, personally I like the travel time, gives me time to practice my profs, check up on the guild, read over some achievements or quests and also view my game journal..." Brad paused for a while. "Oh that's right I haven't invited you to the Horde Guild we had yet right?"

I shook my head.

"Sorry, here then." Said Brad before I got a notification for a guild invite, which I accepted, entering the Horde Brotherhood along with Klein, making us the 127th and 128th new members in the guild. I looked at the Guild stats, it was level 12 with 110 members currently online, it was possible that some of the other guild members were alt characters. The ranking system was pretty complex by the looks of it. There was the lowest rank, Initiate, which Klein and I were along with at least a third of the guild. Next up was the Page which a quarter of the guild took up, following that was the Squire which a sixth of the members took the rank of. The fewest and highest ranks were the Knight, Crusader, Bishop, Rook, Commander and Lord ranks. The only one with the Lord Rank was Brad which must have been the name for the Guild master.

When I asked about the other Ranks Brad has said that Knight was basically the champions of the Guild and a part of the officer ranks, you earned that rank by both being with the guild for a long time and proving yourself worthy such as a heroic feat. The Bishop, Rook and Crusader ranks were branches of the Knight. Heavy Classes like Warriors, Paladins and sometimes Druids who tanked would earn the rank of Crusader, Hunters, Rogues, Shaman and sometimes Druids could earn the rank of Rook for medium classes, while light and spellcasting classes such as the Warlock, Mage, Priest, Shaman and Druid could earn the rank of bishop. Each branch had their own special bank tab in the guild where gear and items spec'd for them would be held and withdrawn from along with some special privileges. This was also the highest rank any non friend of Brad could achieve since Commander rank was the one who Brad knew in real life and held as his Lieutenants who were still high in power if not equal in authority.

(Anyways I'm gonna skip ahead because I don't think you guys want to hear about how boring my trip was...)

*Prrrrrraaaaaaahhhhhh!*

Sounded the horn to announce our arrival.

*thunk* I fell to the floor after being shaken awake by an ugly Troll... oh wait that was Klein...

"Dude get up we're here!"

I suddenly was alert and up, I jumped up from the bench and proceeded to the deck of the Zep and exited onto the tower along with a few stragglers onboard. As soon as I stepped off the next load of players stepped onto the Zep and they were off, the Zeppelin master NPC, a small male Goblin with a double layered rotating Gear for a shield said "There goes the Zeppelin to Orgrimmar! Sure hope there are no explosions this time." and I cringed a bit wondering if it could actually explode.

"Hey man where'd Brad go? Don't tell me he missed our stop..." said Klein.

I peered off the edge and saw a long silver haired bluish-black skinned Elf laying on the ground, he pushed himself up, his left ear drooping a bit, holding his head in pain. "Never again... never again am I jumping off a Zep without Divine Shield or something of the likes..."

"Did you jump!?" I asked exasperatedly

"Yeah!" he replied "Forgot..." he paused for dramatic effect "Pain do hurt here!"

Klein and I walked down the spiral staircase that lead down the Zeppelin tower, emerging from the tower, overlooking a small dark and creepy looking town.

"That's Brill, and that is where we are headed." Said Brad after he'd recovered

"Looks haunted to me..." said Klein

"Well this is Tirisfal... it's supposed to..." the undead elf grinned.

The town looked to be at least a five or ten minute walk from where we stood at the moment, thought Brad said he could have gotten there in about one with his Skeletal Horse but for sake of companionship he didn't leave us to wander alone, guiding us into town.

The dank and creepy looking buildings were all strewn with cobwebs between every available nook and cranny while the guards who patrolled the village looked even less inviting... they all had glowing amber eyes, or none at all... in fact were missing jaws even!

We walked past a massive statue of an undead elf woman with a long flowing cape and hood over her face. "Here is the inn." Said Brad and lead us inside where very few players were visiting, most were low level undead characters since I guess this was the first town they'd encounter on average.

We were led up a set of stairs to a row of seating that looked like something you'd see back in Japan, the little seating areas were little private nooks with thin purple drapes across them. At the top of them, where the drapes hung was a little number, I guess Brad was trying to figure out which one the girls were in.

"4, ok this one." He said and brushed aside the drape... the first one I saw was Sugu who wore a set of flowing elegant purple linen robes with a little fire elemental at her side with fireballs in its hands... her skin was a mildly decayed grey and her eyes glowed amber but otherwise looked human... if you ignored her amber eyes and greyed skin she looked just like she did in real life actually.

"Yeah I went with an Undead Mage." She said, her voice echoing a bit but otherwise still sounding like she did as a human.

"Thankfully they gave the Forsaken elbows and knees now so your bones aren't showing... you uh... also have the option to trim your nails now..." Brad added jokingly holding up a small knife with a blade smaller than my thumb length, it must have been for cutting nails or hair, or even shaving as the tool tip said it was merely a tool class item, not a weapon.

I looked across from Sugu and my jaw dropped... "Asuna your..."

"Beautiful right?" she took the words right out of my mouth as she playfully brushed her fire red hair behind her foot long ear, her eyes glowing a fel green upon her petite and adorable face. She was dressed in Green, golden and silver chainmail armor which showed the first inch of her slim stomach while her skin tight green mail pants showed off her perfect Elven figure. She really just looked like she did in real life, only with foot long ear, and glowing eyes... a red and silver medallion also was pinned in her hair, but otherwise it still had the same style she had IRL.

"Blood Elf Paladin." She said, holding up a fancy golden plated shield which looked like some amethyst in shape or something, along with a thin and curved sword which had a classic and elegant Elf look to it at her side.

Klein and I sat around the table with the girls and Brad, the drapes fell back into their position, seemingly blocking out all our noise from getting past it. I looked at Asuna and Sugu's target info, they were both already in the guild, good... but then I looked down and whined inside... Sugu was also Level 11 with Klein, while Asuna was the highest of us at Level 12... making me the lowest level for a change at Level 10 still...

"Hey you guys want to go back to the Ghostlands with me? We can all quest there since I just entered that area, then once we all hit level 15 we can queue for dungeons." Said Asuna.

"Sure" I replied "But what time is it, in the real world anyways?"

Brad opened up a small menu with a digital clock on it. "Well you guys have been in game for two in game days roughly, so its been maybe between 6 to 8 hours in real life."

I nearly choked at this info... "Damnit! We should log off then for the day, maybe tomorrow then!"

Asuna nodded and she opened up her player menu, logging off, as did Klein and Sugu... I then logged out as well, waking up in a comfortable lounge chair at Egile's place... I sighed, removing my nervegear and walked home with Sugu...

Once we got home, she went straight to sleep... me on the other hand... I had catch up to do...

**The next day...**

I walked into Falconwing Inn, brushing aside the light see through purple drapes that covered the entrance in a bit of a rush. A brilliant red and golden Bloodhawk Claymore graced my back along with a suit of shiny red, gold and silver mail armor. I proceeded up the ramp to the second floor where I found Asuna as her Blood Elf Paladin, Klein as his Troll Hunter and Sugu as her Undead Mage.

Asuna was in her Green chainmail armor, looking over me curiously... "You must have been busy last night..." she said, making an odd gesture at me. "And you also went Paladin I see..."

"Well..." I paused "I went Ret Pally..." I countered which was a DPS, two handed or dual wielding Paladin type...

She sighed "And I'm a Holy Paladin, I plan to take Protection as my second spec later on, my secondary class set however is Druid."

I nodded, mine had been set to Hunter which would allow me to effectively use ranged weapons if I needed to, from the looks of it Klein had again taken a Marksman Hunter with the Druid secondary class set as well while Sugu had a Fire Mage crossed with a Warrior for extra spells... she was standing over by one of the Leather NPC vendors buying the purple [Battered Armor] leather set... she walked back after equipping it... "I can wear Leather now, at level forty I can upgrade to Mail armor, Battlemages are awesome!" she chirped

"Why did you change to Blood Elf anyways man?" Klein asked.

"Well... I wanted to be the same race as Asuna... cuz you know... Blood Elf and an Orc... kinda weird..." I said

"Right..." he muttered "So shall we party up and get going?"

"Sure!" I replied.

_Asunachan has invited you to a party._

I accepted the invite and joined the party with Asuna as the leader... she then send out a role check to make sure everyone had a position in the party. Asuna selected healer, Sugu and Klein took DPS while I was left with the Tank position, despite being a retribution Paladin. When I used it later, Righteous Fury would help me keep aggro.

We all headed out of the Inn when we heard the sounds of battle...

**XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX**

* * *

We all ran to the archway in front of Falconwing where a group of 6 level 40-41 and 3 level 42-44 with one level 45 Alliance were trying to lay siege to Falconwing Square. The guards in the area must have been leveled with the average population of the realm, and since there were no max levels yet most of the guards who were responding to the attack were level 30-40... I guessed it was to make PvP fair for the early stages of the game until some people got max level characters.

The Alliance attack had almost wiped out the guards who were stationed at the archway, letting them attack at will... the only one still fighting was the Level 60 Elite Flightmaster with the level 45 Dwarf Paladin, the paladin was quickly slain but the Flightmaster then returned to his post as the rest of the Alliance party had made it past him.

"Don't let them reach the Inn!" Yelled a level 34 Tauren Druid who had engaged with a Level 40 Night Elf Rogue. He'd gone into Cat form so that he could use stealth as well, hindering her attempts to pin him down... despite the level difference he managed to keep her busy for a few minutes and reduce her health down to 65% before being killed.

Meanwhile the Level 45 had revived and started making his way along with two 42s and one 43 towards the inn... which we had just come out of and were standing in front of... the 43 Gnomeish mage threw a Frostbolt at me, which despite out obvious level difference I managed to dodge, likely because I dove out of the way... I wasn't going to be able to dodge another...

The Gnome charged up another Frostbolt when an arrow lodged into his chest, taking his health down to 15%, the Gnome looked around for the shot but another shot, glowing purple struck him in the waist and he went down...

"Sup?" I heard from behind me... I turned around to see Brad jump down from arch above the inn, I had no idea how he'd gotten up there however...

These guys are nothing, I'm level 63 now, I think I can two hit these guys no problem... aimed shot will take them down in one hit easy! These guys have hardly half the HP I have..."

Brad notched an arrow and fired an arcane shot at the approaching 45 Paladin... the Paladin must have realized who he was facing and skidded to a stop screaming something in common, causing the other Alliance raid members to panic and flee... not before Brad took down the Paladin, rallying the other Horde players by shouting "The enemy is retreating! Do not let the escape! FOR THE HORDE!"

"FOR THE HORDE!" shouted the majority of the players in Falconwing resulting in a low level zerg rush against the remaining Alliance players, with at least 40 -20 players attacking the 7 40+ Alliance players.

"It's like shooting Gnomes in a barrel!" Brad exclaimed as he pegged a fleeing Gnome Warlock in the back with an Aimed shot.

In the end, only one Alliance player got away...

Brad walked back to the 45 Dwarf Paladin he'd taken down early in the raid, the corpse was next to a Blood Elf weapon vendor who was standing next to a tiny cone shaped forge. Brad knelt down and pulled a medallion or badge off him... the badge glowed a bright gold for a moment before turning into a handful of silver coins. He stood back up, turning to us. "Killing players both in World PvP and Battlegrounds earns you honor which will be used to buy less powerful, yet still powerful, PvP gear, trade items and other stuff like mounts when you rack up enough points... killing an enemy player also gives you the opportunity to break their insignia which can reward you with unique quest items, money and rarely consumables."

I sighed "Is it always like this?"

"Every now and then there will be an Alliance Raid on one of our cities or villages... they implemented a new World PvP system where if a faction raids a town, village or city and take over the control point for it, they not only gain access to a PvP area specific boss who will drop a large amount of loot leveled to the size of the town, but also reward massive honor points and give them a unique buff which gives them an extra 50% to PvP Resilience and Power for anywhere between a day to a week, again it varies with the size of the settlement or base."

"Well... we were going to head to the Ghostlands to level a bit. Wish us luck and thanks for saving my ass." I said

Brad chuckled "No problem... oh here, I found this while farming a low level area for skins and leatherworking." Brad opened up a trade menu giving me a [Veteran's Shortsword of the Bear] and Klein a [Hunting bow of the Monkey], which were both uncommon-green items, it replaced my [Bloodhawk Claymore] fairly well despite it being a one hander. I was happy it was a one hander actually, it would let me dual wield later once I found a suitable secondary.

"Thanks" said Klein.

"No problem. Those serve no use for me and I doubt I could sell them for very much on the Auction House." Brad replied.

I nodded and said my farewells before heading out, with Asuna leading the way. We walked along the beige colored cobblestone road towards the Ghostlands, passing the Northern Sanctum along the way as well as Fairbreeze Village, the walk took us about an hour or so, maybe more but it was a nice walk. Frisky Dragonhawks fluttered around minding their own business while hungry but otherwise curious Lynxes prowled the woods, peering at us between the trees of Eversong.

Only twice did we have to stop to kick a Lynx's ass, yielding some [Lynx Meat] for Asuna and [Light Leather] for Klein.

Before we crossed the bridge into the Ghostlands, an Undead Forsaken NPC woman stopped us, asking us to bring her a few samples of Plauged animal blood, Asuna however had already done this and shared the quest with us before handing it in herself, completing it for all of us...

*Ding*

I leveled up from 10 to 11...

"Ehe... ehehehehehe..." I nervously chuckled... "How convenient..."

"Mhm..." everyone replied... what? It wasn't my fault that I had been at 95ish percent a moment ago... ok... well... to an extent...

We crossed the bridge leading into the Ghostlands, Asuna paused at the middle for a moment, looking back into Eversong.

"It's so pretty!" Then she looked back towards the Ghostlands "In a way... it's pretty to... but it has a sense of dread looming over it... and it's where we are headed!"

The trees which in Eversong were birch white and orange or red leaved were grey and lacked any leaves, the ground was tainted black and sickly looking Lynxes and Bats roamed the woods... for now we'd stick to the path until we reached Tranquillian which wasn't that far up the road.

Klein caught up to me, since I was up at the head of the group with Asuna, his Raptor hung back a bit with Suguha making sure our squishy spellcaster didn't get jumped. "Hey man, Brad told me about area specific dynamic events that happen now, says those and several other thing have revolutionized the realism of the game itself... like we could get ambushed by Undead while we are here, or an Elite Rare Spawn might appear nearby and attack... natural events, weather, NPCs moving around, things like that... ambushes especially are more likely depending on where you are. In Eversong they will never happen, but in places of higher level and instability, attacks will be more common..."

I put my hand on my Shortsword "Right, then let's keep an eye out for Ghouls."

"Um... guys..." Said Suguha from behind...

"What?" I turned around and saw three level 11 Risen Hungerer zombies... decayed and ravaged by the plague.

"Crap..." said Asuna as she drew her sword and shield, her green glowing eyes narrowed at the undead... I looked back towards her and drew my Sword, keeping my other hand free for faster spellcasting.

"More are coming from up the road..." Said Klein, backing towards Suguha.

I counted about 12, we were outnumbered 3 to 1... "Back to back formation!" I yelled as the Undead converged on us. I twirled my blade, ready to strike at the first zombie to reach me.

As they got closer I heard a roar and Klein's Raptor leapt out tearing apart the first Zombie dealing 30% damage with a Ferocious Bite, Klein followed up with an Arcane Shot and a Kill Command, slaying the first undead.

Asuna pushed off the ground, jumping at her first zombie, slashing it across the neck, severing it's head but it still pushed on, not dying. She pushed her attack by dodging the Hungerer's swipe by using a bailout ability which allowed a player to dodge an attack no matter what but had a ten second cool down and reduced your parry and dodge chance by 75% for five seconds. However by doing so she set herself up for a knee shattering kick, then uppercutting it with a golden holy hammer by casting Judgement, knocking it on its back. She jumped on it and plunged her sword into its chest killing it. she turned to another which was advancing on her, cast a Holy Shock at it which stumbled it back she charged at it, slamming it with her shield and following up with a sword thrust into its gut.

I turned away from Asuna's fight to deal with my own zombies.

"Ragh!" I yelled and slammed my Sword Pommel into the skull of an encroaching zombie, caving it in. The momentum from my pommel strike gave me momentum to spin around and deeply cut into the zombie's stomach, almost cutting it half. The other two wasted no time in closing in on me, so I was dealing with all three at the same time. I bashed one of them with my pommel, temporarily sending it off balance while I cast Hammer of Justice on the third, stunning it for six seconds. This gave me enough time to finish off the last one with a quick dodge, non-bailout, and Counter-Attack, which was also a new passive ability in the VRMMO version.

Counter-Attack allowed your next regular attack to strike as anywhere between a double or quad critical strike dealing huge damage. I understood why they added all these Passive abilities to the Virtual version as to liven up fights and reward players who fought with real skill, not just hammering away a certain spell or boring action bar fighting. Fights were much more fast-paced due to all the new passive abilities, wanting you to rely on your actual wits and skill than your parameters making combat both fast, and dynamic, it let one switch up combat styles and use their environment and surroundings to their advantage.

For example when the zombie I'd stunned came to, he leapt at me in anger, I Bailed to the side as the Zombie passed me and swiped his buddy who was behind me, his claws got stuck in his friend's flesh giving me the oppritunity to take both of them out at the same time. I kicked the zombies into a fence which lined the road and cut the heads off both of them easily enough which killed one of them, while I had to finish the other one who was still stuck on the other zombie's corpse... once I'd slain both of them I turned to the others.

Klein's Raptor was keeping one Zombie busy while he was engaged with the other, he held his bow in one hand and a knife in the other, he was struck in the midsection taking 5% damage. He kicked the zombie back a bit so he could get a shot off. He fired a Concussive shot at the zed head, dazing it allowing him to gain some distance. He back up a bit before kneeling down and aiming his bow at the dazed zombie, he pulled the string back and nailed the zombie in the head, killing it.

Asuna had finished off her last zombie and was coming back towards the rest of us, she was about to sheath her sword when.

"Hey did you forget about me!?" Suguha shouted, Asuna and I turned to look at her down the road a bit with two more zombies on her, her Fire Elemental had been slain and one zombie lay on the ground in flames while another was currently on fire but still moving... the zombies got close enough to strike her but Suguha sliced the weakest one's head off with her [Gladius] killing it. However the other pushed her over since Mages and other spellcasters are physically weaker making them easier to push around. She fell over and the Zombie leapt on her tearing up her chest.

"CRAP!" I yelled and used Judgement on the Zombie, knocking it off her... I ran towards it and kicked it while it was down before running it through with my sword.

"Sugu are you ok?!" I nearly yelled as I knelt next to her, her wounds were bad but she lacked any blood... her health was down to 30% and her portrait in our party interface was faded slightly.

"I'll get this" said Asuna who cast Holy Shock on Sugu, restoring her health back to 80%, mending her broken flesh leaving only scars... this however was also removed when Asuna used up her Holy Power to cast Word of Glory on Sugu, maxing out her health once again.

"Ok, new rule... one of us stay with Sugu..." I said.

We all chuckled, except Suguha mind you, since she was on the beating end of the stick.

"I need Stamina on my gear..." she sighed... being the only one of use still with full White equipment.

We carried on in good speed to Tranquillian now, not stopping for anything and thankfully not _having_ to stop for anything. No more ambushes from the undead, no one tripped and broke anything and a tree did not fall in our paths... it fell behind us... crushing Klein's Raptor... but anyways...

We reached Tranquillian and an NPC named Arcanist Vandril dropped to his feet from his sitting position on a fence near the outskirts of the village and walked over to us.

"You come from Silvermoon?" he asked "I've been waiting for days from a reply from Lor'themar!" he crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.

Asuna walked in front of me, holding me back with her arm clearly indicating that _She's got this._

"Um, no, we are not messengers, but we did find one wounded on the road a while back, a Forsaken woman was tending to him, but he gave me this" she said, pulling out a rolled up scroll of paper with a red lace silk band around it, giving it to Vandril.

The Arcanist read over the note from Asuna, mumbling about numbers and costs, soldier counts and strengths, things that we in the end could care less about...

The NPC sighed and lowered the paper, looking back at us. "Look, I know is seems strange but these Forsaken are here to help. You should speak to their leader, High Executor Mavren. He's in the tower on the west side of town." He paused "Oh and Paladin, when you are done talking with him return to me; I have something dire that needs to be dealt with immediately!"

Asuna nodded and we all received a quick little _there-and-back_ type quest in which we just had to run across the village and speak to some undead dude then return to the Arcanist.

As we walked through the town there were several smaller buildings in Blood Elven style which were slightly decayed and faintly had green vines running up and down them... several lower level players ranging from 10 to 25 were going in and out of them, rarely more than two per a house.

"I guess this must be player housing... why would they live in such a rundown part of the world?" I wondered aloud.

I felt a bump from behind as a larger Blood Elf male bumped into me, his Player name read Freeze with a lower tag saying Horde Brotherhood, he was a level 62 Paladin, so why he was here was beyond me.

"Costs." He said bluntly and walked past me without so much as saying anything else, heading down the road away from Tranquillian into the Ghostlands and towards a place called the Plaugelands on my map.

I shrugged and looked back at the cheap player housing... I wondered how you actually bought housing in game... back in Eversong I'd seen a bridge just after leaving Sunstrider Isle which lead to a small man... or elf... made island which had Blood Elven structures floating above the water in a small community, the buildings had gleamed almost golden and reflected the red light of the setting sun that afternoon, in game anyways. I wouldn't have minded living there... still I saw no one on that island, as far as I could tell no one had earned enough to blow on such high tier housing... I guessed it cost a fortune!

We continued onto the western tower, upon entering it Mavren nodded at us, he was standing next to another undead man, across from him were two Blood Elven girls, each NPC in the structure had a quest to give us, we took them all before returning to Vandril.

Once we stepped out of the tower I was engulfed by a bright green light, it was soothing but at the same time, gave me an adrenal rush, like my body was being dissolved and resolved from one location to another.

When the light died down... I noticed I wasn't in Tranquillian anymore... actually I don't think I was in the Ghostlands anymore either!

The sky was a dark and faint purple with strands of green fel magic weaving through the air currents... the air smelled of a fel taint and demonic in nature. The buildings surrounding me were mostly of silver and golden stonework with a sandstone colored cobblestone road, the stones being massive. A red banner with a red jewel was placed to my left while a blue banner to my right... for a moment only I was here... then more and more players started to appear, looking just as confused as I was.

"What the hell just happened!?" I heard from behind me and saw Brad as his Undead Elven Hunter, his zombie dog had been swapped for a standard grey furred wolf... still this wolf was massive!

"I don't know... where are we?" I asked

Brad looked around, getting aquainted with his surroundings... "Shattara City... in Outland... why are we here!? I was on my way here actually but you... you are still level 11! How did you get here!?" he then noticed the other players being teleported in. "Ok... this is weird... I don't like it!"

Asuna, Klein and Suguha warped in near me, then suddenly something clicked in my mind... "No, no, no!" I swayed, clutching my head. "This isn't happening again!"

"What?" Klein asked "What's happening again!?"

A loud bang and bright flash erupted from the middle of the central building of this city and a large man of light and angel wings... kinda... flew out from the structure... hovering above the players... who by now looked to fill up Shattara to the brim.

"Heros!" shouted the light man, whose voice echoed with power "Horde, Alliance! Your time has come... welcome to the World of Warcraft! Virtual edition! Most of you are probably wondering why you have been brought here?"

A wave of murmurs and whispers ran through the crowd of both Alliance and Horde players.

"As of less than sixty seconds ago the logout option in the menu has been removed and replaced by the switch persona button within your player menu. This was not a defect in the game, I repeat, this was not a defect."

The murmuring and whispers turned to shock and horror at the revelation.

"It's happening again..." I muttered, just loud enough for Asuna, Klein, Suguha and Brad to hear.

"No way mon!" exclaimed Klein, before furrowing his brow "I mean man. Talking like that... it grows on you..."

The light spirit continued talking "This has been replaced to ensure that you get the full experience from the game, which is what we here at Sandstorm entertainment were going for."

"Sandstorm?" Brad muttered "I knew it!" he yelled "Blizzard didn't really make this game! Who signed for this!? Where's Blizzard at, they'd never do something like this!" he shouted at the light man. Well... so far he was taking it better than most people during the opening of SAO... people there panicked... Brad was rational and rather than worrying and panicking... he got mad... apparently this rubbed off on a few of the braver players. Repeating his shouts at the Light man, asking for Blizzard and who the hell Sandstorm was.

"And as such, to allow the real life experience, should your avatar's Health bar hit zero, you will die, your character will fall to the ground and you will be unable to move... however... I'm sure most here have heard of the Sword Art Online incident in Japan a couple years ago... reassured, Amusphere's and the latest VR consoles will not be what kills you should perish in game... INKA will be your demise..."

"Inka? What's Inka?" muttered the crowd.

"However, the game is not nearly as cruel as Kayaba's game was... should you die, you have exactly five minutes upon death to be resurrected by a fellow player, as all spirit healers have been removed from game. Upon revival you will suffer a minor rez sick debuff, reducing your stats by a quarter, less drastic than the full rez sickness you would gain from a spirit healer. Also you may only be revived once every 64 hours. That means don't die more than once every three days! Should you die in this state, or the five minute timer expire before resurrection your character will be deleted... but fear not for it still will not be the end... each player has their three character slots, which means, three lives... should a character die, you will be forced to choose another character to play as, however. Lose all your characters and upon your last character's death you to shall be deleted, from the game and real life..."

A wave of fear flowed through the crowd... some people began shouting in outrage, some were crying and others panicking.

"See how much more lenient we are here at Sandstorm? We've given you all a fair chance... no matter your experience levels with games like this. Now then, last thing. As of right this moment there are a full 10,000 people online in this realm, the last 2000 copies were finished and sold... making a full server. Now you may be asking. But Mr. Adam Clay! How on earth do we get out of here? Well thats the hard part now... unlike the SAO incident, this game runs on time. Every three years in game, the next expansion is slated to be auto released. The game however will only update once each of the main bosses are uncovered and slain for each expansion. This means each Raid is a onetime only run now, as are heroic dungeons. Normal dungeons will be runable as much as you want but will not count towards game completion, every dungeon has a heroic version available, however Raids have no heroic mode, just Flex raids which will scale to your party or raid group size, with a minimum of ten player difficulty. This now concludes the WoW-V tutorial. Players. I bit you a most fond farewell... good luck!"

The whole city was silent before we were all engulfed in the same green light that had brought us to Shattara in the first place... when it died down I along with the entire Horde population were standing in Orgrimmar's Valley of Strength...

"No..." I muttered "No this can't be happening again!"

Brad who was still next to me... muttered "So this is what the SAO incident was like... I should have guessed something like this was going to happen... damned spooks did this I bet!"

"Hey, Kirito" said Asuna "Remember when that... guy you beat up who will never be mentioned again said he was going to sell some of the Nervegear tech to an American company?"

I furrowed my brow "Yeah... I wonder if Sandstorm was the company he had a deal with? It must have been... it's the only way he could have gotten his hands on the code that made up SAO... and the death game... which means it's likely updated so that the authorities can't crack it..." something snapped in my mind. "Oh shit!" I cursed checking my inventory, it had to be here still! There was no way I'd go into a new game without her! I found a small gem in the shape of a tiny glass heart in my bags. "Perfect... I tapped on it and it glowed briefly before taking the form of a small child with black hair and eyes.

The little girl looked up at me before chirping "Daddy!" she ran and hugged me "You look funny daddy." She stated.

I chuckled "Yui, do you know where we are?" I asked, while Brad was just standing there looking dumbfounded, I just mouthed _Long story _to him and he nodded like he understood but in reality he still looked like someone had just pulled a fast one on him and left his brain in the gutter.

"Hold on accessing the game's data..." she held her hands to the sides of her head "Azeroth..." she said "World of Warcraft... and it says here that I'm being detected as a Player non-combat humanoid companion and/or battle pet.

I raised an eyebrow as Yui turned into what looked like a tiny high or blood elf with wings... a sort of sprite or fairy companion. She flew up and perched herself on my shoulder, in a way, she reminded me of what she was like in ALO but only in this case she had a health bar and level, which read 98 HP and Level 1 with a small blue helmet next to her portrait.

"Game data has stated that you can have me duel other player's pets for money or item wagers, pit me against critters in the wilds to level me up and gain extra money and experience, or queue myself and two other pets in a duel with a pet trainer NPC to earn money, exp, and unique items!" Yui chirped.

"Geez Yui" said Brad who had been listening "You make it sound like illegal Mexican Cock Fighting..." he sighed "Hey Kirito, what is she anyways?"

"Long story, I'll explain later." I replied.

"I see..."

Brad turned a quick 360 spin to look over the players who were in the Valley of Strength, most still in awe at what just happened... some were franticly trying log out... Brad gritted his teeth and took off without a moment's notice... a minute later I saw him standing at the top of Grommash Hold.

"Players of the Horde!" he yelled, managing to get everyone's attention as the panic in the VOS calmed down, listening to the Beta player. "Fear not! If we work together as a faction we can overcome this! This means equality for each player, those who are higher levels must help the lowbies with their level, we'll need as many higher level players if we wish to take down Illidan and Kael'thas! However, there are those of you who may want to stay behind, this is not a bad plan, you can be our suppliers! The work house of the Horde, the workers and specialists, Blacksmiths, Miners, Leatherworkers, Tailors, Enchanters, Alchemists, Cooks, Medics, and more, you will feed the Horde war machine on its march to freedom."

The Valley erupted in a mix of cheers and jeers... most were cheers though... Brad sure had a way to get everyone worked up though, he was a natural speaker... in a way... he reminded me of Diabel... just hoped he didn't meet a similar fate...

"So what will we do!?" he asked

"WIN THIS GAME!"

"Whose hands is out fate in!?"

"OUR OWN!"

"Whose asses are we gonna kick when we get outta here!?"

"SANDSTORM'S!"

I swear I saw a slight grin on Brad's face as he prepped to finish his speech.

"And for you RPers out there... who do we fight for!?" he yelled

There was a slight pause, however I saw several other players grin after he said this and at the same time at least three quarters of Orgrimmar shouted out in unison, echoing throught the valleys and mountains of Durotar and Aszhara**(Spellcheck that)**.

"FOR THE HORDE!"

I couldn't help but admire their courage... the only question is... how long would it last?

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**Hey guys so sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but at last, it is out and the game has finally officially started... I hope the length of this chapter at a whopping nearly 9000 words proves enough of a compensation for you all.**

**You will also notice I have changed up the fighting style in the game, it was more for the sake of the story than anything else... I mean reading a fic where all the fighting is action bars and cooldowns would be boring as hell... "I used Crusader strike and slammed it over the head with Judgment before waiting for Crusader Strike to cooldown before finishing it off..." *yawn* right?**

**If you liked the story so far why not add it to your faves and follow it to stay in the know of future updates since I'm not likely to update for another week or more even... and then whether you liked it or not leave me a review saying what was good, what was bad, or somewhere in between. But please... please... for the love of the Sunwell... if it is going to be bad... DO. NOT. FLAME. I want constructive criticism, I'm at my wits end with people posting "This character is to OOC he's a pussy now and a loser you suck for it." shit like that. If a character isn't up to par or something like that a simple "So-and-so is a bit OOC, he's more so-and-so" which is constructive criticism, which is what I expect a negative review to come with, this helps me to improve more than the first review type.**

**Thank you, hope you understand and I love you all (Not in like... a weird way though... cuz... well... that would be creepy right?)**

**Anyways WTYL guys!**

**-Rogue**


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